Talk about over-egging it. ‘Chinese Democracy’ was 14 years in the making and uses every studio effect known to mankind. In short blasts it’s quite impressive, but after 15 minutes it sucks.

It’s been a decade and a half since their last album, the Punk cover concept album ‘The Spaghetti Incident’. Guns n’ Roses return with an album worth of film music.

Yep, it’s the type of Rock that’s used in blockbuster movies when the director wants some excitement in the audience. A short 30 seconds blast of adrenaline and fireworks going off all over the place.

Only, the songs on ‘Chinese Democracy’ are on average five minutes long. The firework’s become a bit boring by then.

Top example: ‘Madagascar’, all raging guitar plus a touch of 90’s Hip Hop. Sure, it spells ‘tough’ at first glimpse, but after a minute it starts sounding, well, cliched and tired.

You want more? Try ‘Shackler’s Revenge’, cool chorus but the verses are riddled by effects. You’ll find more Effects n’ Roll on the title track, ‘Riad N’ The Bedouins’ and ‘Better’.

OK, not all the tracks totally drown in gimmicks. Guns n’ Roses almost run up to old 80’s form on ‘Street Of Dreams’.

Listen To Guns n’ Roses New Album Here!

They also tackle a softer approach on ‘Catcher In The Rye’, ‘This Is Love’ and ‘Prostitute’. Again, there’s too much fussing about and the songs sound laboured. Particularly on ‘Prostitute’ the band ends up sounding like the Scorpions. For a band that once used to get away with making rock ballads sound cool, this is a bit of a low.

In a nutshell, half of ‘Chinese Democracy’ would make a good source for movie or game soundtracks. The other half sounds like an odds-and-sods compilation of Rock styles from the last decade. The fact that only singer Axl Rose is left of the original members at this stage and that Axl practically went through the entire L.A. phonebook of studio musicians during the recording of this album didn’t add anything to quality control or the cool factor.

Try listening to it while you’re on the PlayStation/X-box/Wii.

We say:

You can download ‘Chinese Democracy’ here from iTunes UK.

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UK And Ireland Readers - Buy Guns n’ Roses New Album On CD And Vinyl Here!
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Photo Credit (Thumbnail): George Chin